Warc rankings for Effective 100 revealed

Compiled by Warc, the international marketing insights company, the Effective 100 Ranking is produced by combining the results of the industry’s most important effectiveness award shows around the world throughout 2021, and acts as a benchmark for excellence in effectiveness, allowing marketers to compare their performance with that of their peers.

The awards tracked are determined by a worldwide industry survey and in consultation with the Warc Rankings Advisory Board.

Campaign: Crazy Dreams for Nike by Wieden+Kennedy Portland/Publicis Sapient Seattle

Sportswear brand Nike celebrated its 30th anniversary of the Just Do It campaign by refreshing its original sense of rebellious self-belief. Starting with a tweet from Colin Kaepernick, it showed how athletes today were using that same spirit to move sport forward - and the world with it.

In second place is A Dad’s Job by FP7 McCann Dubai and Initiative Cairo for Home Centre. The furniture retailer tackled the taboo topic of single mothers to create an impact with its Father's Day campaign in the United Arab Emirates. In third place is Meddle in the New Zealand Election by Special Auckland for Every Kiwi Vote Counts. The campaign harnessed the power of social networks to mobilise overseas New Zealanders to vote in the country's 2020 election.

Creative agency: FP7McCann Dubai

FP7 McCann Dubai retained its top place for a third consecutive year with five campaigns ranked in the top 100 including three in the top ten, for Home Centre, Babyshop, Donner Sang Compter, Mastercard and Spinneys / Lebanese Breast Cancer Foundation / American University of Beirut Medical Center.

Tarek Miknas, CEO, FP7McCann Menat, said, “Nothing pleases me more than FP7McCann winning for creative effectiveness. As a commercial art, by definition, we need to deliver on both Creativity and Effectiveness or we are not doing our job. There is no greater honour than to be recognised for both. I thank our brave partners and our incredible agency talents that together made this come to fruition.”

Ogilvy Sydney rises from #7 last year to claim second place, with five campaigns ranked for Whitelion, KFC (x3) and Huggies. Wieden+Kennedy Portland in 15th place in North America in 2021, takes third place globally with its hugely acclaimed Crazy Dreams campaign.

Media agency: Zenith Bogotá

Zenith Bogotá is up from #36 last year to claim pole position. PHD Auckland, last ranked #34 in 2019, is now in second place globally. PHD New York, is up from its previous position of #43 in 2021 to claim third place.

Digital/Specialist agency: Publicis Sapient Seattle

Having worked on the top campaign Crazy Dreams, Publicis Sapient Seattle is in the first place. Edelman New York takes the second position having last been ranked #7 in 2020. Newcomer to the Rankings is InHype Dubai, straight in at #3.

Network: McCann Worldgroup

For the fourth consecutive year, McCann Worldgroup retains its #1 ranking as the most effective network. Eight creative and digital/specialist agencies in the top 50 contributed to its total points, including FP7 McCann Dubai and McCann Manchester which ranked #1 and #8 in the creative agency list.

Suzanne Powers, global president and chief strategy officer, McCann Worldgroup, said, “It’s incredible to see, once again, our teams’ passion, smarts and ingenuity as they drive the most impactful work in the world in partnership with our clients. We are so proud of all of them and honoured by this recognition”

Climbing up the network ranking is Ogilvy, up from #4 in 2021 to claim second place. BBDO Worldwide is in third place.

Holding company: WPP

WPP is ranked #1 for a fourth consecutive year. Omnicom Group remains in second place, a position held since 2019. Interpublic Group is in third place for six years in a row.

Mark Read, CEO, WPP, said, “The real success of great ideas lies within the results they produce. Our strong agency representation across the three rankings – including MediaCom NY named top media agency, Ogilvy and Mindshare coming first creative and media networks respectively, and WPP topping the media and effectiveness holding company rankings – is testament to the hard work of our amazing teams who are delivering the tangible outcomes that our clients demand.”

Brand: McDonald’s

Fast-food chain McDonald’s is the most effective brand for the third consecutive year, with two campaigns ranked in the top Effective 100 for two markets - US and New Zealand. Burger King, up from #6 last year, now takes second place. KFC is third place, down from #2 last year.

Morgan Flatley, global chief marketing officer, McDonald’s, said, “We are beyond excited to be ranked as #1 most effective brand in the world by Warc. Receiving this recognition for the third year in a row is especially meaningful, as it underscores our relentless effort to deliver effective marketing, powered by brave creative choices and underpinned with genuine human insight. At McDonald’s, our marketing community is focused on delivering “Feel-Good Moments” to our fans in a way that builds both our brand and our business. I’m proud to work alongside a team of world-class marketers and agency partners that show creative courage, every day and are focused on building deeper and more meaningful connections with our customers. This is an important recognition of all of their hard work.”

Advertiser: AB InBev

Following its success as #1 advertiser in the Creative 100, the brewing giant AB InBev also now takes top position as the most effective advertiser, rising up from seventh position last year. Unilever is ranked #2, and Restaurant Brands International climbs to third, up from #17 last year.

Pedro Earp, chief marketing officer, AB InBev, said, “We are honoured to be recognised as number one in both creativity and effectiveness. Anyone can have ambition but systemizing it throughout an organization on a global scale requires more than just ambition. It requires a change in culture, supported by a system of processes, tools and capabilities, along with an ecosystem of strong creative partners, in order to pull it off. I’m proud of what our team has accomplished by addressing real consumer and customer needs and delivering strong business results."

Country: USA

USA retains its place as the most awarded market in the world for effectiveness, a position held since the introduction of the Warc Effective 100. China and India remain second and third respectively, the same positions held for the past two years.

Summing up, David Tiltman, SVP, Content, Warc, said, “A common theme in this year's Effective 100 was a desire to go beyond educating or engaging consumers. We see judges awarding effective campaigns that change behaviour and encourage participation, across both commercial and not-for-profit campaigns. Nike encouraged young athletes to Dream Crazy; Every Kiwi Vote Counts got New Zealanders living abroad to vote; UCash / Shwapno convinced Bangladeshi farmers to convert fresh produce into money, and Donner Sang Compter reinvented bloodletting to enable donations.”

The Warc Effective 100 has been compiled by applying a rigorous, unbiased and transparent methodology.

The Warc Effective 100 ranking can be viewed in full here. It includes the world’s top 100 awarded campaigns for effectiveness, top 50 creative, media and digital/specialist agencies, agency networks, brands, advertisers, countries and top holding companies. The campaigns, case studies, credits and subsequent insights reports are available to Warc rankings subscribers.

The top ten most highly ranked campaigns and companies in the 2022 Warc Effective 100 are:

Top ten world’s most awarded campaigns for effectiveness

Rank	Campaign Title	Brand	Agencies	Points
#1	Crazy Dreams	Nike	Wieden+Kennedy Portland / Publicis Sapient Seattle	100
#2	A Dad's Job	Home Centre	FP7 McCann Dubai / Initiative Cairo	94.6
#3	Meddle in the New Zealand Election	Every Kiwi Vote Counts	Special Auckland	57.6
#4	Moldy Whopper	Burger King	INGO Stockholm / DAVID Miami / Publicis Bucharest	51.4
#5	Project AgroBanking	UCash / Shwapno	Grey Dhaka	50.6
#6	Rephrasing Parenthood	Babyshop	FP7McCann Dubai / InHype Dubai	44.9
#7	Blood Unity	Donner Sang Compter (DSC)	FP7McCann Dubai / McCann Health Dubai / FP7McCann Beirut	44.3
#8	TheTravis Scott Meal	McDonald's	Wieden+Kennedy New York / Narrative Los Angeles / OMD Chicago / Burell Chicago / The Marketing Store Chicago	44.2
#9	Rooftops Farms	Knorr	FP7McCann Cairo / Magna Cairo	43.6
#10	#ChickenWars	Popeyes	GSD&M Austin	43.3

Most awarded creative agencies for effectiveness

Rank	Agency	Points
#1	FP7McCann Dubai	234.6
#2	Ogilvy Sydney	115.5
#3	Wieden+Kennedy Portland	113
#4	Special Auckland	99.4
#5	Ogilvy Mumbai	94.2
#6	Colenso BBDO Auckland	89.5
#7	FCB New York	85.8
#8	McCann Manchester	79
#9	Publicis Bucharest	71.5
#10	BBDO New York	71.3

Most awarded media agencies for effectiveness

Rank	Agency	Points
#1	Zenith Bogotá	68.5
#2	PHD Auckland	63.1
#3	PHD New York	58.3
#4	MediaCom Sydney	58.2
#5	Wavemaker Mumbai	44.8
#6	Havas Media Lisbon	40.2
#7	Mindshare Shanghai	37.1
#7	Wavemaker Chicago	37.1
#9	Carat New York	36.8
#10	Mindshare Moscow	36.4

Most awarded digital/specialist agencies for effectiveness

Rank	Agency	Points
#1	Publicis Sapient Seattle	100
#2	Edelman New York	52.1
#3	InHype Dubai	34.6
#4	Arc Worldwide Chicago	33.7
#5	Digitas Chicago	32.7
#6	Havas Sports & Entertainment Paris	30
#7	Twiga Digital Kyiv	28.7
#8	BlueFocus Digital Beijing	28.6
#9	Symmetry Digital Karachi	28
#10	Digital Moscow	26.7

Most awarded networks for effectiveness

Rank	Network	Points
#1	McCann Worldgroup	863.6
#2	Ogilvy	777.6
#3	BBDO Worldwide	702.7
#4	Dentsu International	510.5
#5	DDB Worldwide	471.6
#6	IPG Mediabrands	419.7
#7	OMD Worldwide	419
#8	TBWA Worldwide	368.4
#9	Leo Burnett	341.2
#10	VMLY&R	318.9

Most awarded holding companies for effectiveness

Rank	Holding company	Points
#1	WPP	2162.8
#2	Omnicom Group	2018.8
#3	Interpublic Group	1700.9
#4	Publicis Groupe	1377.2
#5	Dentsu	531.3
#6	Havas Group	382.6
#7	Stagwell	153.6
#8	BlueFocus	108.9
#9	Accenture	96.2
#10	ADK	7.1

Most awarded brands for effectiveness

Rank	Brand	Points
#1	McDonald's	313.1
#2	Burger King	271.2
#3	KFC	212.5
#4	Nike	117.5
#5	Aldi	102.7
#6	Home Centre	94.6
#7	Dove	79.9
#8	Mastercard	79.6
#9	IKEA	69.8
#10	Pepsi	69.2

Most awarded advertisers for effectiveness

Rank	Advertiser	Points
#1	AB InBev	436.2
#2	Unilever	409.1
#3	Restaurant Brands International	316.8
#4	McDonald's	313.1
#5	Procter & Gamble	272.7
#6	Yum! Brands	239.6
#7	PepsiCo	236.7
#8	Mondelēz International	192.6
#9	Landmark Group	141.7
#10	Nestlé	131.1

Most awarded countries for effectiveness

Rank	Country	Points
#1	USA	1649.3
#2	China (Mainland)	997.2
#3	India	607.1
#4	Colombia	491.6
#5	New Zealand	460.2
#6	Russia	454.7
#7	United Kingdom	440.2
#8	Australia	403.5
#9	United Arab Emirates	389.5
#10	Canada	377.2